Indoor tanning is a great way to get skin cancer - especially if you start young. People who use tanning beds, sunlamps or tanning booths before age 35 are up to 75% more likely to develop melanoma, and those who begin before 25 may double their risk of other types of skin cancer. So we are once again surprised to to find that indoor tanning remains popular with the young women whose fair skin makes them the most vulnerable to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. The latest evidence comes from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As Sandra Spath glanced around the Santa Monica yoga class for soon-to-be mothers, the thought that had nagged her that day evaporated. "I wasn't even the oldest one," Spath said. Just a few weeks before she turned 40, Spath gave birth to a boy - and joined the growing ranks of women becoming mothers later in life. Federal data show that women in their 40s are more likely to have babies now than at any time in more than four decades. Among American women ages 40 to 44, birthrates have hit their highest point since 1967, data recently released by the National Center for Health Statistics reveal.

Re "Menopause: Is men's taste to blame?," June 15 The report provides scant evidence that a genetic mutation caused menopause in aging women, that male preference for young women is responsible for the accumulation of that gene over time, or that men are reproductively fertile until death despite their young female partners. In fact, menopausal women tend to outlive men. As such, menopause may have arisen because of a set of complex genes contributing to longevity that enabled survival beyond a woman's ability to reproduce.

CLEVELAND -- One of the men suspected of imprisoning and abusing three recently freed young women was earlier accused of a series of violent acts against the mother of four of his children and was ordered to complete domestic violence and substance abuse counseling. Grimilda Figueroa, who in various court documents filed in 2005 said she had four children with Ariel Castro, told authorities that Castro broke her nose twice, knocked out her tooth and threatened to kill her and her daughters several times.

Re "Birth control ruling appealed," May 2 It is fitting that the online version of this article on the Obama administration's appeal of an order to remove the age limit on Plan B emergency contraception appears on The Times' Science Now blog. As a pediatrician who has done extensive research on emergency contraception and young women, we need science now. Science must be the basis for these decisions, not politics. Medical opinion is solidly united that this medication is safe for women of all ages, and research shows women know when and how to take it. There is simply no scientific reason to fight Plan B going over-the-counter for all women, and the new age limit will create restrictions for all women in need of Plan B. This is politics trumping science again, and it's bad medicine.

Ex-Baylor star Brittney Griner likes to remind all the girls and young women who idolize her to just be themselves and not worry what others think. Griner was doing just that this week while discussing her sexual orientation, apparently for the first time with the media. The new member of the Phoenix Mercury, chosen No. 1 overall in Monday's WNBA, did not make a big deal about the fact that she is a lesbian, making no big coming-out announcement. But she did not hide from the topic either when it was pertinent to the issues being discussed.

Cat Harris and her daughter visited the Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles in March. As they left, they noticed this group of young men shouting from a window above to get the attention of the young women on the street below. "I tend to carry my camera wherever I go, so I just couldn't pass on this photo opportunity since they looked fun and unique," Harris said. Each week, we're featuring photos of Southern California submitted by readers. Share your photos on our Flickr page or reader submission gallery . Follow us on Twitter or visit latimes.com/socalmoments for more on this photo series.

ROME -- The former exotic dancer at the center of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's trial on charges of paying a minor for sex made a tearful statement Thursday complaining that she has been denied a chance to speak out in court and accusing judges of psychological torture. "I have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide," said Karima El Mahroug, the Moroccan-born dancer who was better known as Ruby Heart-Stealer when she attended Berlusconi's so-called "bunga bunga" parties as a 17-year-old in 2010.

An Arkansas man who posed as a musician was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting a 21-year-old Illinois woman in Glendale after she responded to his Craigslist job posting for a personal assistant, police said. Garry Dwayne Boga, who also used the name “Tavion,” faces one felony count of sexual penetration by a foreign object, felony sexual battery by fraud, two felony counts of assault on his cohabitant and felony robbery, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint.

Who says beer is a man's drink? Beer has passed wine as the beverage of choice for women ages 18 to 34, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . Julia Herz, craft beer program director for the Brewers Assn. trade group, said women in their 20s and 30s are in "the sweet spot" for craft beer consumption. They're the same quality-minded people who are buying artisanal cheeses and fair-trade coffees and who don't mind waiting for a bartender to shake a craft cocktail. Craft beer is an affordable way to buy artisanal.